Doctors successfully treat rare J&J blood clot, case report shows

Doctors have successfully treated a patient who developed very rare blood clots after receiving the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine in early April using an alternative to heparin, which is a blood thinner experts advised against using, according to a new case report.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) briefly paused — and since restarted — the use of the single-dose Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine on April 13 to investigate several cases of a rare clotting disorder that occured after vaccination.

The pause was, in part, to make sure that doctors knew how to treat patients who developed a blood-clotting disorder known as thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS) or vaccine-induced thrombotic thrombocytopenia (VITT). This rare syndrome involves blood clots in the veins of the brain and very low platelet counts.